1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a shift mechanism of an outboard motor.
2. Related Art
An outboard motor is provided with a shift apparatus for switching a propeller shaft between forward/reverse rotations and a neutral state by a remote control. The switching is generally performed by moving forward and backward a push rod provided in the propeller shaft by a shift apparatus arranged in a gear case so as to connect or disconnect a clutch dog to or from the propeller shaft, which may be called a shift-in and shift-out method.
The shift operation for actuating the shift apparatus is achieved by taking in a motion, for example, of a shift lever operated by an operator into the outboard motor via a shift cable so as to transmit to the shift apparatus within the gear case via a shift link mechanism through a clutch rod. The clutch rod extends from an upper portion of the outboard motor to the gear case in a lower side while passing through a pilot shaft generally supporting the outboard motor so as to be steered right and left (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication Nos. 11-141356 and 2004-351947).
However, since an outboard motor body supporting a clutch rod is elastically mounted to a hull via a mount while the pilot shaft is rigidly attached to the hull via a clamp bracket, the clutch rod is moved within the pilot shaft when the mount apparatus is displaced. Accordingly, in order to prevent the pilot shaft from being interfered with the clutch rod, it is necessary to enlarge an inner diameter of the pilot shaft more than necessary, which results in the increasing of the weight of the entire structure.
On the other hand, since a part of a sliding portion of the shift link mechanism is not positively lubricated, there is a risk of lowering operability.